My phone somehow reset itself to factory settings -- I LOST Everything - how to recover?

Terrance Collins

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I picked up my phone to make a call and noticed it looked VERY different, different splash screen, apps lined up differently, etc.

When I went to look for an app, I noticed they were all gone. Somehow, my phone reset itself and I lost everything -- all installed apps, phone lists, everything.

Is there anyway to go back to a state that existed before this? FWIW, I live in Guangzhoung...and the only thing I did that was even remotely different was I reloaded the phone (china unicomm).

Help, please.
 

B. Diddy

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Welcome to Android Central! Ugh--unexpected factory resets can occur, but it's pretty rare. It usually means something catastrophic occurred. When you say you reloaded the phone, do you mean with airtime?

Unfortunately, if it truly was a factory reset, all of the locally saved data was lost. Hopefully you had a lot of data synced with your Google account (like Contacts, Drive, Photos), since it should sync back once you log back in.
 

Terrance Collins

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Hi BDiddy, yes, it was 100 rmb airtime load which preceded the foulup by about 30 minutes. And, as a true-blue, redblooded AMERICAN man, I had nothing backed up.....or so I think.

Hang on, you're not going to believe the next episode.....

So, this morning, I run down to my favorite Vietnamese phone/pc fixit guy, Mr. Ho Chih Minh V, to have him install some of his magic vpn on my neutered android. Well, it turns out he can't install it for some reason, far too complex for this Wisconsin farmboy, so he hands me back the phone.

Now, here comes the magic: when I looked at my phone, the first thing I notice is: IT"S BACK TO NORMAL.....WTF, I say, in universally understood Esperanto....he has no idea what happened, I have no idea what happened, BUT maybe you do....

Is it possible I was somehow hooked up to Google's back up service you mentioned and didn't even know it??? At any rate, I want to immediately do just that. Can you direct me to a good YouTube video which explains this facility?

Thank you so much.....maybe I won't have to go back to Appleland after all....
 

B. Diddy

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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.:confused:

If you go to Settings>Backup & Reset, you'll see an option to backup data and settings to your Google account, as well as an option to Automatically Restore, which restores app data when you reinstall it. If you do have the backup option turned on, then a lot of information will get restored if you do a factory reset--but the tricky thing is that not all data will be restored. Only some 3rd party apps seem to take advantage of this feature, and it's next to impossible to figure out which ones do. I think Android M is supposed to make this more universal for 3rd party apps, but that's just a preliminary rumor I read somewhere.

Apps you installed from Google Play Store will automatically reinstall after a factory reset (this usually starts to happen right away, as long as you're connected to the web), and if those apps save data to Google servers, that data will also be restored. Your system settings and wi-fi passwords should also restore. But locally stored files (like photos, documents, etc.) won't suddenly reappear on your local storage. This is why Google Photos Auto Backup can be so helpful, and also why it's prudent to use cloud storage solutions like Google Drive or Dropbox.

See this article for more information (although it's not exactly flush with details): https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2819582?hl=en
 

xstinkyx

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I know this probably isn't what happen to you, but....

A few days ago I pulled my N5 out of my pocket and it was asking me to sign in. The splash screen was the default looking one, everything looked odd. For a few moments I was puzzled and wondered if all of my data got wiped out via some hard reset. I then realized that somehow the phone switched over to the Guest account. I have no idea how it did this from being in my (loose) pocket. I switched over to my account instead of guest and everything was back to normal.
 

samuko

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I just had something very similar happen. I picked up a call on my Blackberry Priv and when I finished the call I was presented with a fresh install of the OS. I thought it had been factory reset. I was in the process of trying to reinstall all my apps, data, contacts and backups when I inadvertently stumbled across a screen that asked if I wanted to delete the "guest user" account. I then discovered that somehow during the call I had added a guest user. This can be done by pulling down from the top of the phone twice. The first pull reveals notifications. The second swipe down from the top reveals settings. At the top right corner of settings is a little circle with silhouette of a person. If you click it you can add a guest account. Apparently it's possible to activate the addition of the quest account with your cheek while in a call. Once I deleted the guest account it said, it was enabling the "owner" account and I was back to my phone. Everything was just the way I had it. What a relief! If anyone finds themselves in the same boat, I hope this helps!
 

nilocZ30

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Awesome, this just saved my bosses life (and by default mine).
PRIV came out of his pocket, seemed to have lost everything.
2 swipes and a click later...happy boss!
Thanks so much for this.
 

xtingu

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I woke up this morning to discover my phone (BlackBerry Priv) had been "factory resetted" without my intervention. ("Without my intervention" could also mean "without my conscious involvement; "... Because how many times have you fallen asleep playing with your phone only to discover your homescreen has been rearranged, or that you were one screen-tap away from posting a comment that says "bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb"? :-D ANYWAY. )

So this morning (20 minutes ago) I looked at my phone and realized it looks totally different, and I deduce it's been factory reset without my (conscious) doing. I check to see if maybe overnight last night my phone auto-updated to Marshmallow... nope, OS 5.1.1. Then I checked to see if I've enabled the Guest Account, but nope... There is no account on the device. Luckily I keep everything backed up to Google so this wouldn't have been a big deal anyway, but I wasn't in the mood to get all of my settings just so again.

But before I started re-configuring everything, I did what every good former PC tech does: I turned my device off and turned it back on again. And wouldn't you know it... As soon as it fired up, there's my old wallpaper, my trusty homescreen apps, etc. It was as if nothing happened. My phone was all, "What? I don't know why you were stressed out, I was fine the whole time." Uh-huh. Yup.

(With that, I thought I should mention that I genuinely LOVE my BB Priv.)
 

sebastian geyer

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Why did my Android tablet do a factory reset???

I just had something very similar happen. I picked up a call on my Blackberry Priv and when I finished the call I was presented with a fresh install of the OS. I thought it had been factory reset. I was in the process of trying to reinstall all my apps, data, contacts and backups when I inadvertently stumbled across a screen that asked if I wanted to delete the "guest user" account. I then discovered that somehow during the call I had added a guest user. This can be done by pulling down from the top of the phone twice. The first pull reveals notifications. The second swipe down from the top reveals settings. At the top right corner of settings is a little circle with silhouette of a person. If you click it you can add a guest account. Apparently it's possible to activate the addition of the quest account with your cheek while in a call. Once I deleted the guest account it said, it was enabling the "owner" account and I was back to my phone. Everything was just the way I had it. What a relief! If anyone finds themselves in the same boat, I hope this helps!
 

Patty Cobb

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Terrence, I had the same issue repeatedly. As I followed the steps to set everything up everything began to restore it's self from google. I do manual backups every day. I finally discovered that the last app I installed (Layout) was the culprit causing my phone to reset. I deleted the app & problem was solved.
 

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